That Is Damn Rudeness!

All the praise I got for my patience in the last post is going to disappear after this one.

Nothing pisses me off more than little children who are rude and disrespectful to their elders. On a daily basis, I experience incidents like these with my 11 year old cousin who challenges your authority by screwing her face, sucking her teeth or else displaying all the general signs of rudeness when you talk to her. Usually I scold her, letting her know that rudeness in children is both disgusting and unappealing and that I don’t intend to take no shit from an 11 year old (plain talk, bad manners). I have never found it fitting to scold other children for rudeness because 1) it's not my place, 2) I don't see the need to raise my pressure for other people children and 3) it have some REALLY immature parents out here who are woefully ignorant when it comes to other people disciplining their children. However, I found myself shelving all these rules and peppering a little boy in a pharmacy for his rudeness.

It was 10:10AM on Thursday, January 20th, 2010 and I was standing in front of Payless in Arima waiting for my friend with whom I had some errands to run. As I was waiting I realised that my awesome, pink and luscious lips were drying out under the blazing, Trinidadian sun. I immediately dipped into my pocket for my ever faithful Chapstick to moisturize my awesomeness only to realise that I had left it on my bed. Great, just GREAT! I definitely needed to buy another one so, I crossed the street and went into a pharmacy. Sadly, this pharmacy only had Blistex (really good brand) that cost $26.95- RIDICULOUS, I know! Being POOR with following directions and not knowing Arima that well, I had to wait for my friend who agreed to take me to another pharmacy.

I can't remember the name of the pharmacy but I remembered it being after Subway and KFC, opposite a gas station and within walking distance from the Sangre Grande Taxi Stand. The pharmacy was virtually empty when I entered except for two customers and three people I assumed were the 'employees'. I became pretty annoyed because there was no one behind the counters. Suddenly, 'it' appeared behind a counter and I realised that he was going to attend to me.

"How much for the Chapstick?” I asked.
"Six dollars, sir!” he responded.

I registered the fact that he spoke in a mocking voice and used the word 'sir' as though mocking my use of the Standard English and the weird accent that comes with it. I brushed it off as me being hasty and 'it' trying to be adorable. I told 'it' that I would like to buy the Chapstick and he proceeded to take it off the holder thingy. While I got my wallet, 'it' started attending to an old lady and I noticed that 'it' started peeling off the protective seal from MY Chapstick, obviously 'it' was not supposed to do that!

"Why are you opening it?” I asked gently.
'It' looked at me and boldly asked, "Wha' yuh mean wha' ah opening it for?"
"Buh what the ASS is this?", I thought to myself, feeling my patience, rules and general pleasantness evaporate as I stood before this vile, prepubescent, dougla, rude THING staring at me like he is a 'test'. Well, 'it' chose the wrong person today.

"Excuse me?” I asked.
'It' had the gall to repeat, "Wha' yuh mean wha' ah opening it for?"
"Well, when someone BUYS something that is SEALED you're NOT supposed to open it!” I replied and for good measure I added, "I want another one please!"
"Why I must give you another one?" 'it' enquired obviously trying to aggravate me even more.
"We all went through this, I WANT a sealed Chapstick. I'll be by the cashier!” I said dismissing 'it'.
"Why you does talk so?” he finished as I started walking away.
"Because that's how I speak!” I answered rather angrily because I was over his rudeness and wanted to leave as soon as possible.

As I was waiting by the cashier, I heard that 'thing' telling my friend and the old lady that the Chapstick belonged to him and he couldn't understand why I was acting like that. This frivolous comment just ran off my back like water on a dasheen bush leaf. It was the Old Lady's comment that fired me up once more. Big, hard back, 'sensible' woman like she would say: "Yeah, he didn't have to act like that!"

I spun around, looked her in the eye and said, "HE is a little boy and HE is supposed to know his place. HE is supposed to have RESPECT for people that come into the store and more so, his elders. HE TOO DAMN RUDE!" I wanted to berate Granny further by letting her know that she was on REAL SHIT for condoning 'it's' behaviour, no wonder the majority of youths today are IN A MESS and spiraling OUT OF CONTROL. I stopped myself from yelling these words at her because I noticed that she was clutching a bottle of CoQ10, a medicine typically used amongst patients that suffer from heart- related diseases and I didn't want to distress Granny further. The 'thing' wasn't finished with me. While cashing my Chapstick he kept staring at me, employing his best imitation of a gangster lean as though sizing ME up. Luckily, I had experience with this kind of thing so I just sucked my teeth, shook my head, tapped the counter and asked that 'it' hurried up because I had other things to do. 'It's' last attempt at rudeness was flinging my change on the counter. I had to use my best calming techniques to turn around and walk out that store.

As we were walking out my friend would tell me that I shouldn't have let 'it' get to me like that. I said I knew but I detested rudeness in children and ‘it’ needed to be scolded. Little thing like that giving ME rudeness, ah Lord... thanks for reading!